David Bibb Graves was an American Democratic politician and the 38th Governor of Alabama.
Background
Graves was born on April 1, 1873, in Hope Hull, Alabama, the son of David and Mattie (Bibb) Graves. His father, a cotton planter and veteran of the Confederate Army, was descended from Thomas Graves, who in 1608 emigrated from England to Jamestown, Virginia, and later served in the first Virginia House of Burgesses. Graves's mother, of colonial Welsh ancestry, came of a family of some political prominence; she was a cousin of William Wyatt Bibb and his brother Thomas Bibb, both governors of Alabama. When David was a year old his father died, and he was brought up by his paternal grandfather, Russell Graves, on an Alabama farm. He later lived with an uncle in Texas.
Education
With roots in both Alabama and Texas, Graves received his early education in the public schools in Texas and at the Starke University School in Montgomery, Alabama, and in 1890 enrolled at the University of Alabama. Upon graduating in 1893 with a degree in civil engineering, he studied law for one year at the University of Texas, read law the following year in Montgomery, and then went to Yale, from which he received the LL. B. degree in 1896. He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1894 and the Alabama bar in 1897. A member of the Christian Church and a trustee of Bob Jones College, Graves received several honorary degrees from colleges in Alabama.
Career
Entering politics almost immediately, Graves in 1898 was elected to a four-year term in the Alabama legislature. In 1901 he was appointed city attorney of Montgomery, but his political advancement came chiefly through the national guard. Appointed aide-de-camp in 1897, with the rank of captain, he quickly rose to assistant adjutant general and then to adjutant general, a position he held from 1907 to 1911. In 1916 he helped organize the 1st Alabama Cavalry and, following Pancho Villa's forays into Texas and New Mexico, saw service on the Mexican border. That same year he was elected chairman of the Alabama state Democratic executive committee, in which capacity he sought to substitute a primary for the convention system of nomination. When the United States entered World War I, Graves, now with the rank of colonel, went to France as commander of the 117th U. S. Field Artillery, which consisted of units of the former 1st Alabama Cavalry. He returned home in 1919 a war hero and organized the Alabama section of the American Legion, of which he was elected the first state chairman. With the support of World War veterans, he ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1922 but was overwhelmed by William W. Brandon. Four years later, however, having been endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, he was elected governor. A practical politician, Graves had built a large following on personal favors and friendships, rather than on ideological issues. By adeptly dealing with different interest groups, he drew support from both the northern part of the state, an area of small farmers, with a tradition of agrarian radicalism, and from the black belt, an area of many Negroes and large landowners who usually followed the conservative lead of corporate interests in Mobile and Birmingham. Once in office Graves pursued a moderately progressive course, one that had been already inaugurated by Gov. Thomas E. Kilby (1919-1923) and subsequently maintained by Brandon. He abolished the convict leasing system and, in keeping with a pledge made to the farmers, raised taxes on public utilities, railroads, and coal and iron companies. But he also accepted a tax on cigarettes and cigars, which was especially unpopular among the small farmers. The new revenue thus secured was used to expand educational and public health facilities, increase teachers' salaries and veterans' pensions, fund an ambitious road-building program, construct new bridges, and improve port facilities in Mobile. Though an admitted member of the Klan, Graves, in response to mounting criticism of Klan terrorism, refused to appoint Klansmen to state positions. Yet at the same time he was dilatory in publicly condemning the organization, and he made the prosecution of its members difficult by allocating too little money for the purpose. Prevented by state law from serving two consecutive terms, Graves was not a candidate for governor in 1930, but in 1934 he again won election, campaigning on his previous record and as a New Dealer. He favored such reforms as the federal child labor amendment, unemployment insurance, and cooperation with the TVA, and he endorsed the referendum and recall. Prohibition emerged as a major issue in the campaign. His two opponents supported repeal, but Graves's astute political sense led him to oppose it, though he was not a dry by personal conviction. To maintain his popularity among the farmers in northern Alabama and the working classes, Graves made good on his commitment to New Deal legislation, winning a reputation as one of the most progressive governors in the South. He continued to increase expenditures for public education, created a rural electrical authority, and established a labor department, a public welfare department, and a public works program to relieve unemployment. He supported Alabama's first old-age assistance law and successfully sought legislation exempting homesteads worth less than $2, 000 from taxation. Yet Graves also cooperated with conservative elements in the state. With financial support from Birmingham industrial interests, who desired a reduction in transportation costs, he led a movement of Southern governors to change the existing railroad freight rate structure, claiming that equalization of class rate differentials between the South and the rest of the country would bring higher wages to Southern workers. Upon leaving the governorship, Graves, who liked to be called "The Little Colonel" and "Bibb the Builder, " resumed the practice of law. While making plans to run again for governor, he died in Sarasota, Florida, of a coronary thrombosis at the age of sixty-eight. He was buried in Montgomery.
Achievements
Graves is best known as the 38th Governor of Alabama (1927-1931; 1935-1939), the first Alabama governor to serve two four-year terms.
Membership
Member of the National Advisory Committee on Agriculture, member of the Interregional Highway Committee
Connections
Graves married Dixie (Bibb) Graves of Montgomery, a first cousin, on October 10, 1900. They had no children.
Father:
David Graves
Mother:
Mattie Bibb
Spouse:
Dixie Bibb Graves
She was a First Lady from the state of Alabama, and the first woman United States Senator from Alabama.
Grandfather:
Russell Graves
Friend:
Robert Reynolds "Bob" Jones Sr.
He was an American evangelist, pioneer religious broadcaster and the founder and first president of Bob Jones University.
